In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of a sinless earth and how it became a sinful and sad world due to the introduction of sin. The consequences of sin are described as a curse that affects all aspects of creation, including the inhabitants of the earth. The preacher emphasizes that no one can escape the groaning and suffering caused by sin, regardless of their wealth, knowledge, or status. However, there is hope for redemption and adoption as children of God, which will ultimately lead to the end of groaning and the restoration of glory.

I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me, to the Honourables. I take, thank God, He undertakes for me. And the people of God said, Amen. You may be seated. Romans chapter 8, verses 22 and 23. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies. It is an old proverb which says, the hardest of nuts have the sweetest kernels. And so it is with this text. This is a difficult text. It's like what Peter said of the writings of Paul, they are hard to be understood. Let's look at this text and let us remember, first of all, when the world was made, it was a sinless world, a sinless earth. We cannot imagine what a sinless earth would be like because we have only had our experience in the world in its sinful condition. The beauty of the unfallen world was sublime. The climate and the harvest were heavenly indeed. But the glad world became a bad world. And the glad world made a bad world became a sad world. Its beauty was turned into iniquity. Its light became darkness and its glory became shame. When sin had finished, the world was a great graveyard and death reigned over all. The curse which fell on the very structures of our earth also fell upon its inhabitants. And all the inhabitants of the world were sad, sad indeed. My text throws out a great all-inclusive enriching net. It includes the whole pathway from the groaning to the glory. Look at the text. It starts with the extent of the groaning. The whole creation groaneth. Secondly, it turns to the excelling of the groaning. Traveleth in pain together. It then takes us to the extension of the groaning. But we ourselves also. And then it takes us to the expectation of the groaning. Waiting for the adoption. And then finally and fifthly, it points out the exhaustion of the groaning to wit the redemption of our bodies. Let's look then first of all at the extent of the groaning. We know that the whole creation groaneth. Creation is another keen. It bears the brand mark of groaning. A constant wheel of groaning ascends from this world every day. And every hour of every day. And every second of every hour of every day. Ascending up to heaven. We groan one year out and we groan another year in. Such is life upon this sinful planet. There is no escape from this groaning. This old scar and the thorn gash mark every one of its inhabitants. The world through sin is a colossal penitentiary. And the crack of the whip spells out the nature of our imprisonment. Everything in this universe is under the same curse. The inescapable curse of sin. From it no person has escaped. The hoarded gold of all the miners of the world can't drive it off. The learning of the greatest scholars can't devise an escape route. The royal blood of majesty can't buy us out. Down this road that we all must walk we will discover the groaning. There is no discharging time from a groaning world. All creation groaneth. That's what the word says. From the equator to the Arctic and Antarctic. From east to west. These groans arise continually to the highest heaven. There is no place anywhere in this world of ours where their cries are not heard. Across the whole mother earth they resound. Morning, noon and night they arise ceaselessly. Every season whether it be spring, summer, autumn or winter. The unstoppable wheels of a groaning world go on and on. The cry is as loud from this fallen world as ever it was. It is ceaseless and without a break. It will continue until the day that Christ returns to his earth. It is like the troubled sea. It cannot rest. Its perpetuation it gains in greater force and wider expression. It commences in the dawn. It doesn't close at sunset. For at night its groans are even more heard and more spoken. These unstoppable groans of a fallen world will never end. Until the almighty maker of heaven and earth destroys this evil world. And puts in its place as the bible tells us a new heaven and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness. Only then will the groaning of this guilty world cease. And all its groans will be banished to the lake of fire. For the groanings of the damned will continue everlastingly. And the wheels of the everlasting torments will continue forever. It was the great C.H.Virgin who said hell is forever. In hell there is no hope. They have not even the hope of dying. The hope of being annihilated. They are forever, forever, forever lost. On every chain in hell there is written the word forever. In the fires that blaze out, they blaze out the worlds forever. Up above their heads they read the terrible eternal signal forever. Their eyes are galled and their hearts are peeing with the thought that it is forever. Oh if I could tell you tonight that hell one day would be burned out. That those who were lost might be saved. There would be a jubilee in hell at the very thought of it. But it cannot be. It is forever. Ungodly, unrepentant mankind will be cast into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But let's turn secondly to the excelling of the groaning. Traveleth in pain together until night. Even after the glorious work of divine redemption is wrought in our souls. When we come and take Christ as our own and personal savior. The pain continues until we pass by death out of this world into the next. Through justification by receiving Christ as our redeemer we get peace with God. This is peace of heart, peace of soul and peace of spirit. As we continue to live in this mortal world of sin, shame and death continues. Our bodies are subject to the results of sin. Upon our being this produces travail and pains. We still have a degenerate old man within us. And his kicking will go on until it is conquered by physical death. Or our rupturing when our Lord Jesus Christ cometh. Yes, we have been redeemed by blood. But not as yet are Christians redeemed by power. This mortal must put on immortality. This corruptible must put on incorruption. Only when that comes shall the travail and the groaning cease. Like Jacob, every Christian limps about this earth because their thigh is out of joint. But someday in glory all the redeemed of God, all the blood-washed sinners will have a glorified body. A body like unto his glorious body. These eyes shall see him in that day. The God that died for me and all my rising bones shall say, Lord, who is like to thee? Someday the saints will put on the robes of glory and enter into the joy of their Lord. Let's look for a moment at the extension of the groaning. But ourselves also. This groaning extends to all the saints of God. None of us can avoid it and none of us can escape it. The great apostle, we read his words today in our Bible reading. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the sword. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Even though all this is so, and we are like those for the slaughter, yet our union with Christ is unassailable. Joseph Irons, the great preacher of free grace, once wrote these lines. Blessed truth, the church and Christ are one. In bonds most secure, no separation can be known while endless years endure. No separation is proclaimed in God's unerring word. Christ is not of as bright a sheen than that her own her Lord. No separation tears my heart. It bids my fears subside. My soul and Jesus cannot part. For me he lived and died. No separation, precious thought. Then Christ is with me here. And home is heaven where I must be brought. For Jesus Christ is there. No separation, this decree of everlasting love, is fixed by the eternal tree and never can remove. We may have pain in this world, but in the world to come, our union with Christ will be unbreakable. We'll never say goodbye in heaven. We'll never say goodbye, for in that land of joy and song, they never say goodbye. But let's look at the expectation of the groaning. We're all in wait. We should remember that Paul was writing to the church of Rome. The Roman citizen's adoption was a most legal appointment under Roman law. A man might adopt a child, but the child to be truly adopted by the man, and to enter into all the blessings of that adoption, the man's money, his estates, and everything he had, that young boy had to be brought to the center of the city. His father had to stand and had to say, I am making this young boy my heir. The young boy's clothes were taken from him and he was dressed in the robes of adoption. He stepped forward and he took the quill and signed his name. And then he was adopted. And no power known to Rome could break that legal bond that bound the father and his adopted son. We're all waiting for that day. We who are blood-marked and spirit-born and heaven-bound. And before the whole world, he will take away all the garments of the flesh. And mortality shall give place to immortality. And we will be declared before the angels of God. And before the uncountable millions of the citizens of heaven. We will be declared to be indeed the very sons of God. Then shall we know, even as we are known. Last of all, let us look at the exhaustion of the groaning. It comes to an end to wit the redemption of the body. One day, all the groaning of God's people will be eternally over. All the elect of God will everlastingly be in heaven. Behind us all will be sorrow. Before us all will be joy. Have you read the story of Jacob? When he was invited to go down to Egypt and see again the face of Joseph. What was it that weighed the balance of arguments for Jacob to go? It was the wagons that Joseph had sent to bring him down to Egypt. Why that? Because every one of those wagons reflected the face of his son Joseph. The firstborn of his beautiful wife Rachel. Tis heaven on earth, tis heaven above to see Christ's face and taste his love. The last chapters of the Genesis record, please read them when you go home today. And you will find something. They are full of tears. Count how many times Joseph wept. Joseph wept. But when his father and brothers came, the tears were wiped away forever. Someday, God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of his people. Someday our pains and trials will be passed. And someday we will enter a land where no tear ever is shed and no groaning is ever known. We used to sing in Sunday school a hymn, It went like this, Since Christ my soul from sin set free, This world has been a heaven to me, And mid-earth's sorrows and its woe, Tis heaven my Jesus here to know. Once heaven seemed a far-off place, Till Jesus showed his smiling face, Now it's begun within my soul. To last while endless ages roll, What matters where on earth we dwell, On mountaintop or in the dell, In cottage or a mansion fair, Where Jesus is, Tis heaven there. Oh, hallelujah, yes, tis heaven. Tis heaven to know my sins forgiven, On land or sea, what matters where, Where Jesus is, Tis heaven there. Do you know your sins forgiven? Do you know peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? Are you absolutely dead on certain that if anything happened to you as you go home from this God's house, for you it would be absent from the body, and present with the Lord? Make sure before you go home today that you have a saving interest in our Lord Jesus Christ. Be in time. While the voice of Jesus calls you, be in time. If in sin you longer wait, you may find no hope in the end. When you cry, be just to the end. Be in time. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, write thy good word upon our hearts, and may thy word live and abide with us forever, for Jesus' sake. And everybody say, Amen.